1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball support specially designed for golf practice, and more particularly to a ball support provided with a base such that a green golfer may swing the club in the practice in a more convenient and free manner without the risk of damaging the club, ball support or the base when the swung club carelessly hits at the support or the base thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
Golf has recently become a very popular game and leisure activity in the world. The population of golfers in Taiwan has dramatically increased following the prosperous economic development and largely upgrade of living standards in this area. However, since it is very expensive to play golf in the golf course and most golfers need to take a long time to practice hard before becoming a skilled player, golf practice yards are conveniently constructed here and there.
In a common golf practice yard, a player may control one of the ball service units 1 so that golf balls 11 are served one by one to a ball support 12 as shown in FIG. 1. The ball support 12 has a circular plate-like top 13 and is inserted down into a stretch of imitative grass 14 which may be, for example, made of plastic. The player stands on a predetermined spot to swing the club to practice the strike of balls. Following shortcomings are existing in the above conventional ball support for golf practice:
a. The ball support has a circular plate-like top and there shall be a large contact area between the circular top and the ball supported thereon, as a result of which, it is not easy for the player to well control the club head for a correct striking position. That is, the player tends to miss the ball and hits against and damages the ball support. PA1 b. The ball support is inserted into the imitative plastic grass and is easily damaged and/or separated from the plastic grass when the ball support is carelessly hit by the player with the club. At this point, the player has to insert the ball support again before returning to his/her striking position which causes many inconvenience to the player during the practice. PA1 c. Since a green player often fails to well control the correct position for his/her club head and the ball support is simply inserted into the plastic grass with its pointed bottom end, the plastic grass is easily damaged by the club which unexpectedly hits against the plastic grass, forming another high cost to the player. PA1 d. The ball is usually placed at different heights depending on the player's preference. However, the ball supports provided in the common golf practice yards usually have fixed height and therefore, can not give the players the same feeling as that of playing golf on a real golf course.